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Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – August 3, 2025
Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 12:13-21
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
If I were looking for sure-thing business opportunity, I would not look at digital marketing or electric vehicles or AI-enhanced products, although all of those are certainly growth industries. I would not look at cryptocurrency, mostly because I’m still not sure what that even is. If I were looking for a lucrative business opportunity, one that has been one of the surest bets in the American economy for many years now, you know what I would get into? Storage units.
Many of you probably watched how quickly the enormous new storage unit facility just north of Oak Harbor went up. You know how hard it is to get a business established these days. That place went up in no time and is going gangbusters. This makes sense in a town made up of military families and retirees – but it isn’t just here. The storage unit business is a $38 billion dollar industry, and it continues to grow like crazy.
People love their stuff, and we have so much of it that we need extra space to put it all! Real estate agents will tell you that when people are looking for a new home, some of the biggest selling points are walk-in closets and extra storage space. And then when those spaces fill up with stuff, people will pay good money for storage units, for even more room to put their stuff.
Please know that I’m not judging anyone here. Anyone who has ever seen my garage knows that I am in no position to judge!
I’m not judging you, but Jesus might be. Jesus has a word which judges all of us, whether we have storage units or garages stacked with stuff like mine or overflowing closets or not. Because what Jesus is getting at in our gospel reading for today is not the stuff itself, but the way the human heart longs for stuff, the way the human heart wants stuff, the way the human heart hoards stuff and clings to stuff and covets stuff.
“Take care!” Jesus says. Live carefully, might be a better translation of this exhortation. “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed,” Jesus says. And why? “For one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Jesus said this after he was approached by a man who was fighting with his brother over money, over stuff. This was probably a younger brother who was fighting with his older brother who was responsible for the family estate. The (probably) younger brother wanted more of the family stuff, and he tried to get Jesus on his side in getting it. Maybe he heard about how Jesus was all about justice and fairness and equity and thought he would be on his side.
But Jesus had bigger fish to fry. Rather than getting dragged into a family squabble about stuff, Jesus cut right to the heart of the matter. Rather than sorting out what was just and fair and equitable, Jesus diagnosed the disease at the heart of it all, which is sin. Jesus specifically diagnosed the spiritual disease of greed, of believing that life is all about the abundance of possessions. Jesus diagnosed the sin of coveting, the sin of desiring the wrong thing.
This is a dangerous and deadly sin. People often think that of all the Ten Commandments, coveting is the least serious of the ten. Surely it isn’t as bad as adultery, right? Surely it isn’t as bad as murder. Outwardly that might be true, but coveting, in its own way, is indeed a deadly and dangerous sin – sometimes because it is the gateway to these other sins!
When I was serving my first call in Montana I did a graveside service for a rancher who had died. He had two sons who, even before their father died, had been fighting over the estate to the point that they were threatening each other. The funeral home director arranged for armed sheriff’s deputies to be at the cemetery to keep the peace. This sounds like a scene from that Kevin Costner series Yellowstone, but it really happened! The sin of coveting is dangerous because it can quickly escalate into other deadly sins, sometimes literally deadly ones. It certainly has a tendency to turn family members against each other. The ranch war funeral I did is only the most extreme example of something I’ve seen as a pastor again and again when an inheritance is involved. When a will is present, the sin of coveting is usually not far behind, and even when sheriff’s deputies don’t need to be called, it destroys relationships as stuff is prioritized over people.
St. Paul takes it a step further. In our epistle reading for today from Colossians we hear him describe the new life we live in Christ, the new self we put on as we live out our faith in Jesus. Because we have died and been raised to new life in Christ, Paul says, we are to put to death whatever in us is worldly, including sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed – which, Paul says is idolatry! Paul equates greed with idolatry, the most grave sin of all! Paul sees greed as turning our stuff into our god, into the thing we value and love and cling to the most.
Jesus illustrates this problem with his parable of the rich fool. This rich man has a bumper crop. “What am I going to do?” he asks himself. “I know! Storage units!” Actually, he tears down his barns and builds bigger ones. But his problem, Jesus goes on to illustrate in the parable, is not the logistics of storing his stuff. His problem is a spiritual one. For one, he is profoundly self-centered. It is clear that his preferred pronouns are “I, me, and my.” Even more significant is how he starts addressing the longings of his soul. He talks to his soul, assuring it that now that he has bigger barns, his soul can relax. He believes that his stuff has now given his soul security and contentment and peace. He believes his soul is safe now because he has accumulated enough stuff. You see what this means, don’t you? He has turned his stuff into his god! He thinks his stuff can soothe his soul! And for this, God calls him a fool.
The Bible does not say that wealth is wrong. The Bible says that wealth is dangerous. And this is precisely why. It is dangerous because it becomes so very easy for us to place our trust in it. It is so very easy for us to think our souls will find security and contentment and peace in our stuff, which is nothing other than idolatry. When we do that, we are worshipping a false god. This is a temptation both for those who have wealth and for those who wish they did, and so it is a temptation for every human being. Coveting is wanting the wrong thing. It is seeking peace and joy and contentment for our souls through bigger barns rather than the promises of God.
“This very night your life is being demanded of you,” God said to the rich fool. “And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”
This past week I visited one of our dear members. She is nearing the end of her life. Several months ago, she had to give up her car. Now, though she technically still owns her beloved home with a beautiful view, she will not return there. All her stuff is back home, soon to be distributed to family members or friends or second-hand stores. Her sole possession she has in her room in the skilled nursing facility is one black and white photo of her and her husband.
We visited at her bedside for a bit before I asked her if she wanted communion. I wasn’t sure, because she isn’t eating much these days and I just wasn’t sure what she was capable of receiving orally. But when I mentioned Holy Communion her face lit up. “Yes, yes,” she said. She hung on every word of the communion liturgy. She spoke every word of the Lord’s Prayer. When she received Christ’s body on her tongue, she savored it with a smile. After she slowly sipped down Christ’s precious blood, shed for her, her face radiated with utter peace and joy. All the treasures she has stored up in her life are mostly gone, but here is this treasure she has in Jesus, which put her soul at peace. As we heard Jesus tell Martha last week, this is the one thing needful, and it will never be taken away. It is the one thing that will last forever.
Dear friends, life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Life consists in this – in the riches of God towards us in Jesus Christ. All the stuff in my garage is ultimately headed for a landfill. All your stuff is too. What a foolish thing to make these things our gods! What a foolish thing to think that our souls can find peace and contentment and security in them!
Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, but in the abundant grace and mercy and love of our savior, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Real life consists in the right and rich relationship with God our Lord Jesus has made possible for us through his death and resurrection. The abundant life is found in the forgiveness and salvation our Lord continues to pour out for us, so that our souls can truly be at rest, today and forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church